Ed Engle: The Conejos is one trout river that's gotten better with age

By Ed Engle, For the Camera

Posted:
07/12/2010 01:00:00 AM MDT

Fishing on the Conejos River has improved over the last 20 years.

When I called Jon Harp several weeks ago to inquire about the fishing on the Conejos River, he peppered his response with terms like "outrageous" and "awesome."

"The river is running lower and clearer than I've ever seen it this time of year," Harp said. "It's the best dry fly-fishing I've ever seen during the salmonfly hatch."

I had a little trouble relating to the almost unbelievable news. I'd spent a good bit of time in the Conejos River drainage in my formative fly-fishing years, mostly because it was the most beautiful river I'd ever seen. However, in regards to the fishing at the time, it gave up a nice brown trout now and then, but it wasn't exactly great.

Although the salmonfly (pictured) hatch is over on the Conejos River in southern Colorado, Jon Harp says the Green Drakes are on.

I distinctly remembered that the water always seemed to be high and off-color during the salmonfly hatch, which meant you seldom got any action on the top. Although you might think that nymphing a big, heavily weighted Pteronarcys stonefly imitation in the murky water would reap rewards if you couldn't score on top, it never really turned the trick for me. I literally used to dream about what a full-blown fishable salmonfly hatch would be like on the Conejos.

Needless to say, Jon's report was a big-time surprise. I really was just looking for someplace where my sweetheart, Jana, and I could go to escape the Front Range madness when I'd remembered how much I used to enjoy the Conejos. I didn't doubt Jon Harp, either. He's guided on the Conejos for 13 years and been the owner of the Conejos River Anglers fly shop in Mogote for the past seven years.

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Of course, the news immediately kicked me into fishing head, and what was supposed to be restful campout on what in my day had been a beautiful, but not especially hot, fishery turned into a frenzied race to throw all my fishing junk into the truck and get on the water. I felt sorry for Jana, but she understands, or pretends she understands, how a grown man can become childishly obsessed over trout.

We got to the river in record time and managed to get the last campsite in the Aspen Glade campground. Aspen Glade is the epicenter of public fishing on the lower river. Once camp was made, we raced down to the fly shop just to make sure nothing had changed. Jon was out guiding, which is always a good sign. One of his younger guides, Devon, was manning the shop. Devon simply said we needed to be on the water by 7:30 a.m. and that the trout got pretty full of salmonflies by 2 p.m.

Back at the campground, I ran into a man and woman walking along the river who said there had been salmonflies all over the place earlier in the day before we arrived. I thanked them, like they had somehow provided the hatch especially for me.

The next morning I was on the river at 7:30 a.m. and I didn't see a single salmonfly, but I didn't get rattled. I've learned over the years that with hatches as significant as a salmonfly hatch, you don't have to see the flies on the water or even see trout eating them. All you need to do is tie a fly pattern on, which in my case was a size 6 Orange Stimulator, and cast it to the water where you think the trout should be.

I did that and immediately got a strike that I missed. I did that again and landed a nice 14-inch brown trout. I did it again a little farther upstream and landed another trout. It was crazy nirvana. I was laughing out loud. I landed trout to 18 inches before things started to slow down. It was the first salmonfly hatch I ever hit right on the money, and I've been trying on and off for 25 years.

A few days later, Jon explained how much the river has changed for the better since I used to fish it in the late 1970s and again in the mid-1980s.

"This used to be pretty much a head hunter river," he said. "People fished bait and kept what they caught. Catchable-size rainbow trout were actively stocked. Now the river has gone from what used to be 75 percent bait and spinner fishing to 75 percent fly-fishers. And that brings a different ethic with it. Most fly-fishers release their catch, which makes for more and larger trout. The lower river is now a predominately naturally reproducing wild brown trout fishery, and where you do see rainbow trout upstream they are mostly wild, too."

That's all good news. Here's a trout river that by all accounts has gotten better in the past 20 years. And that gives me hope.

I talked to Jon the other day, and he said the salmonfly hatch is pretty much history, but not to worry. The Green Drakes are on now, and the trout are just as hungry. I couldn't help getting dreamy ... and don't forget the PMDs with a smattering of caddisflies, either, he reminded me.

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